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They may have just set up shop in 2004, but the folks at Blackstar boast of "50 years combined experience in guitar amplification design and production." And it shows.

Blackstar have quickly become the go-to amp makers for all stripes of metal players, including artists as diverse as Gus G, Richie Sambora, Ihsahn and James Williamson. If you want to know why, you only need to look as far as the craftsmanship behind the Blackstar Series One 100-watt head.

The amp's two channels are each divided into two modes, with the clean channel featuring "warm" and "bright" modes, the latter being perfect for clean intros and bridges, a la the middle section of "Master of Puppets."

For distortion, the overdrive channel gives you the options of a "crunch" or "super crunch" mode, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the crushing tones you can expect. Guitarists falling far on the "extreme" side of the spectrum may need to throw an extra pedal in their chain for those absolutely distortion-drenched tones they so crave, but few metal amps come as solidly built or highly recommended by metal's elite.